Marriage and Madness

Marriage is often presented, to girls at an impressionable young age, as finding a prince charming and living happily ever after. Settling down and having a family may not be as splendid as some women fantasize. Marriages can be toxic and oppressive environments. This is true now as it was for women in the late 1800s. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the protagonist is dealing with postpartum depression, but her oppressive environment prevents her from recuperating. Women with mental illness often suffer in oppressive households.

“The Yellow Wallpaper” tells the story of a young woman suffering
from a mental illness. The narrator first mentions her illness when she
reflects, “I’m sure I never used to be sensitive, I think it is due to this
nervous condition” (Gilman 487). She has no control of her emotions most likely
due to her anxiety. Her illness is also troubling to as she laments, “[her]
nervous are dreadfully depressing” (487). Her troubles stem from her separation
of her child and her treatment which limits her physically and mentally. She
mentions, “Such a dear baby! And yet I cannot be with him, it makes me so
nervous” (488). It can be alluded that she suffers from postpartum depression
and is not being adequately treated. As she is forced to remain isolated indoors,
she becomes obsessed with the wallpaper in the nursery. The wallpaper as she
describes began to, “look to [her] as if it knew what a vicious influence”
(488). The wallpaper affects her, and her imagination runs wild as she sees a
woman imprisoned within the yellow wallpaper. protagonist reaches her breaking
point when she realizes that she is the woman trapped in the depths of the
wallpaper. She describes how she pulled off most of the wallpaper by morning to
free the young woman within the wallpaper (495). Unfortunately for the
protagonist, having children left her in a state of depression and made her begin
to resent her husband.

The protagonist of “The Yellow Wallpaper” entered a marriage
and treatment became an oppressive environment. Her husband became her
oppressor, as tried to suppress her thoughts, and imagination. The narrator
reveals that “perhaps that [he] is the one reason [she] does not get well
faster” (486). She is coming to the realization that her husband is not helping
her get better. When she discloses her discontentment with the yellow wallpaper,
he lets her know, “[there is] nothing worse for a nervous patient than to give
way to their fancies” (488). He invalidates her opinions and suppresses her
feelings. Gilman reveals the protagonist’s husband, “hates to have her write a
word” (487). He stifles her from her expressing her thoughts orally as well as
her thoughts that are written. She does not have a choice but to obey, because
during this period women were not allowed to express their opinions in their
marriages. Men held all the power and they determined whether or the role their
wives played in their household. The protagonist’s husband threatens that if
she does not get better, he would be send her to the physician Weir Mitchell
who is much worse of a physician (488). Her husband can conclude that she is
mentally unfit and send her away without her consent. He has already taken her
away from her actual home in the hopes that she will get better. Gilman reveals
the protagonist has been separated from her child, when she confesses, “there’s
one comfort—the baby is well and happy and does not have to occupy this nursery
with the horrid wallpaper” (489). The narrator is suffering from postpartum
depression and she cannot recover from it, because her husband’s way of dealing
with her illness it to avoid it altogether. Marriage is most often presented to
women as a goal and they are expected to have a family to be happy.
Unfortunately for the protagonist, having children left her in a state of
depression and made her begin to resent her husband. Marriage for the Gilman’s
protagonist did not end happily ever after.

In the 19th century, women with mental illnesses suffered in
their oppressive environments. The fate
of a women depended on her husband, because historically Victorian Women were
“increasingly ill-prepared for the trials of childbirth and childbearing”
(Smith 658). Women would often bare children without contemplating the risks
and suffered the consequences. As shown in “The Yellow Wallpaper” women would
suffer from postpartum depression and it would be dismissed as hysterics.
Throughout history, “hysteria has been seen as characteristically female”
(Smith 653). While at this time science and medicine were advancing, the
treatment women were receiving did not help them, and it often made their
symptoms worsen. Women diagnosed with a mental illness were prescribed a
rest-cure in which, “the patient was not permitted to leave bed or even move
within without the doctor’s approval…” (Sigurðardóttir 3). This confinement was
not a reasonable treatment, and this cruel punishment was not uncommon in this
century. Doctors “attempted to reinforce
childlike dependency in women, defined women as inherently weak, and
discouraged excessive mental or physical exertion” (Morantz). Men as well,
would punish women for not being a dutiful wife in their eyes. Just like in
Gilman’s story often “rest-cure could be used to discipline women whose illness
became a means of avoiding household duties” (Sigurðardóttir 4). Men believed
women would fake their illnesses rather than believe they were suffering from
depression, or anxiety. Unfortunately, women who had mental illnesses suffered
greater than they should have.

Gender roles play a part in oppressive environments. Men
were often seen as the superior sex especially in the late 1800s. Men held
power and authority over their wives. That left many women helpless to the
wills of their husbands. Though those power dynamics have shift, gender roles
are still present and leave women in helpless situations. While mental illness
is still a taboo subject for some, more women are being informed about the
possible side effects and outcomes of childbirth. Most women cannot be put away
anymore because their husbands wish it. “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a cautionary
tale of how gender roles can lead to harmful relationships.